Rafter to ridge beam connection

[OBBob]

Hi All

Can anyone tell me what the standard practice is for attaching rafters to ridge beam on an uncoupled (cathedral) roof?

There is about a 40deg. pitch so the load is certainly pushing into the ridge beam (as oposed to a low pitch which would have much more downward tendancy).
Rafters are to sit against the ridge beam, not on top of it.
The ridge beam cannot be housed out.
The rafters will be birdsmouthed at the wall top plates.

There doesn't appear to be any 'joist hanger' style brackets availble for this purpose (probably because of the many different roof pitches). From what I have seen on old houses they would have just be scew nailed?

Any comments?

[andrew076]

I cant find AS1684 at the moment but I suspect the MINIMUM fixing requirements would be something like 3 or 4 skew nails and some GI strap across the top as well as maybe some under the ridge beam and nailed to the face of each rafter.

[OBBob]

Thanks, actually I can't see it specified in the framing code, which is why I'm asking. Maybe I'm not looking in the right area ... but there are a lot of things that seem to be 'standard practice' and not mentioned in the code.

Anyone know where this is mentioned?

[pawnhead]

If it's a load bearing ridge and cathedral ceiling, i.e. no ceiling joists or collar ties, then you'll have to put a universal fastener on each side of the rafter as well as skewing it. And as andrew076 said, a piece of strapping over the top.
If it's not loadbearing then just a few nails will hold it.

[OBBob]

Thanks Pawnhead. Do you have a pic or a link to a universal fastener ... that could be many things to us inexperienced types!!

[pawnhead]

Thanks Pawnhead. Do you have a pic or a link to a universal fastener ... that could be many things to us inexperienced types!!

Get this PDF filehttp://www.tecbeam.com.au/_documents...l%20grip%22%22
and have a look at the very last photo at the bottom right hand corner of the last page. They call it a "trip L grip" but it's actually called a "Universal fastener" or a "multigrip". A "trip L grip" is very similar except one of the flanges is cut at an angle. It's used to connect trusses down and not for butting conections.
The universal fastener has a slot cut in it so you can bend one of the flanges and use it in all sorts of configurations when connecting timbers. Four or five nails in each flange should do the trick.

[OBBob]

Thanks ... I can see the Pryda version now!